1. 1 Introducing … QA Focus Brian Kelly UK Web Focus UKOLN B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk Karla Youngs TASI ILRT Karla.Youngs@bris.ac.uk Marieke Napier QA Focus UKOLN M.Napier@ukoln.ac.uk Ed Bremner QA Focus ILRT Ed.Bremner@bris.ac.uk BK

2. 2 Contents  Why is QA Focus needed?  A fictitious case study  What will QA Focus do?  Who: are the QA Focus staff? are the QA Focus’s stakeholders?  How will QA Focus work?  What are your views? BK

3. 3 Why Is QA Focus Needed? In the past:  JISC provided guidance on standards and best practices for programmes (e.g. eLib)  However compliance with the guidelines was not enforced  The culture at that time was “encouraging a thousand flowers to bloom”  This may have been appropriate at a time of research and use by early innovators  However now that networked services have matured JISC feel it is now timely to be rigorous in ensuring funded projects comply with standards and best practice guidelines BK  KY

4. 4 The Need For Monitoring Compliance – A Fictitious Case Study (1) Project X Proposal  Project to digitise 10,000 images, to be deployed in teaching and learning service  Copyright not believed to be an issue Project Begins  Project plan devised and approved by funding body  Staff employed  Equipment purchased  Technical advice obtained KY

5. 5 The Need For Monitoring Compliance – A Fictitious Case Study (2) Project Delivery  Project delivers 5,000 images both JPEG and TIFF  MS Access database containing 5,000 records - but has ‘gaps’ Concerns  Data service has some concerns about delivery of images and Metadata  Only 5,000 images Poor quality Copyright status unclear Deliverables ≠ project proposal KY

6. 6 The Need For Monitoring Compliance – A Fictitious Case Study (3) So what has gone wrong?  Failure to ‘scope’ materials before project was funded  Failure to choose: High quality original photographs Those with Metadata that fit minimum user requirements Those with clear copyright status  ‘Technical’ staff had inadequate scanning skills Did not take advice e.g. TASI Poor quality scanning e.g. blurring Images wrong way round Colour cast on digital images KY

7. 7 The Need For Monitoring Compliance – A Fictitious Case Study (4) So what has gone wrong (cont.):  Cataloguer was not experienced in subject cataloguing of collection: Had to do ‘best’ job on inconsistencies No use of controlled vocabulary Misspellings Some fields left blank  Lack of planning: ‘Scope’ of resources Risk assessment Costs KY

8. 8 The Need For Monitoring Compliance – A Fictitious Case Study (5) So what has gone wrong (cont.):  Lack of training  Lack of consultation with advisory services and digitisation projects  Lack of communication with funding body  Quality assurance procedures were not built into project plan and into working day practices KY

9. 9 The Need For Monitoring Compliance – A Fictitious Case Study (6) So what if there had been QA? Scanning QA Process  Exclusion of poor originals  QA would have picked up poor quality scanning as undertaken  Re-scans would have been managed properly – time built into project plan for this activity as per risk assessment Metadata QA Process  Use of thesaurus  Misspellings, inconsistencies and blank fields would have been corrected KY

10. 10 The Need For Monitoring Compliance – A Fictitious Case Study (7) So what if there had been QA (cont)?  Funding body happy because project delivered what it said it would  High quality digital resources made available via data centres to Learning & Teaching community KY  BK

11. 11 What Will QA Focus Do? Activities of QA Focus will include:  Advising DNER projects on their approaches to QA activities to support their deliverables  Reviewing the projects’ QA reports  Monitoring aspects of project work, in conjunction with projects / clusters of projects  Developing a “QA Self-Assessment Toolkit” to allow projects to further develop QA procedures  Liaison with projects and with JISC in case of projects which are failing to comply with standards and best practices BK

12. 12 Who Are The QA Focus Staff? QA Focus is:  Funded by JISC  Provided by a consortium of ILRT and UKOLN  Equal partnership from two bodies ILRTUKOLN Grainne ConoleLiz LyonStrategic Advice Karla Youngs Ed Bremner Brian Kelly Marieke Napier Management Doing the work BK  MN

13. 13 Who Are The QA Focus’s Stakeholders? MN QA Focus JISC JISC DNER Projects Advisory Services QA Focus works on behalf of JISC to ensure that DNER projects are complying with best practices provided by the Advisory Services

14. 14 How Will QA Focus Work? (1) QA Focus will:  Adopt the life cycle model as the basis for its QA work (creation, management, collection development, access, repackaging, …)  Cover a range of areas including: Digitisation of resources Metadata Web technologies Software development Deployment into service … EIB

15. 15 How Will QA Focus Work? (2) We will:  Evaluate project’s QA plans (as described in the contract)  Liaise with projects over the requirements of the key QA procedures applicable to their work  Liaise with the Advisory Services over their provision of advice and address maintenance and feedback mechanisms  Oversee QA work using various approaches including questionnaires, site visits, remote analysis, etc. MN

16. 16 QA Focus: An Opportunity to Learn We want to develop a culture of self-learning based on examples of  Success  Failure  Excellence  Mistakes …to then establish and promote best practice for the benefit of all projects EIB

17. 17 Benefits to You The benefits to projects of taking a systematic approach to QA include:  The quality of the product will be improved  Improved communication  Funders will appreciate approaches you have taken  Greater chance of future funding from other funding sources  QA culture can be reused  Greater likelihood of interoperability of project deliverables & deployment into service environment  Self satisfaction MN

18. 18 Challenges Challenges you’ll face will include:  Resources  Ensuring that you stay on schedule  Developing a QA culture within your organisation/team  Communication internally and with external bodies  Dealing with sceptics  Setting a standard EIB

19. 19 Example Of QA Activity - Web Current plans for monitoring the QA of Web sites:  Analysis of key pages for: Accessibility (WAI) HTML and CSS compliance Use of Metadata Use of DNER standards …  Dissemination (e.g. nos. of links)  Other aspects MN

20. 20 Example Of QA Activity - Digitisation Current plans for monitoring the QA of digitisation:  Liaison with projects to establish existing digitisation procedures and goals  Development of self-assessment methodology for documenting processes for: Digitisation of multi-media resources for delivery, storage, etc. Metadata for digitisation, resource discovery, etc. Security, watermarking, etc. Copyright, IPR, etc. Resource delivery EIBEIB

21. 21 Example Of QA Activity - All We will then:  Provide anonymised summaries  Document significant problems areas  Address concerns with individual projects and advisory services  Repeat process at later date, and take further action if significant concerns have not been addressed MN

22. 22 What Are Your Views? Your feedback is appreciated…. Ed.Bremner@bristol.ac.uk M.Napier@ukoln.ac.uk MN